Macon, IL

Macon is a Macon County city in central Illinois, nine miles south of Decatur, with 1,177 residents in the 2020 census. The Illinois Central Railroad shaped the town from the beginning: Macon was plotted in 1856 on railroad-owned land, and the first store and homes followed soon after. The city incorporated in 1869 and became a shipping point for grain from the surrounding prairie. Its name honors Nathaniel Macon, a North Carolina politician and early American statesman.

The railroad still ties the town to Decatur and the farm country around it. Macon’s school map is regional too. Meridian Community Unit School District 15 includes Macon and Blue Mound, with Meridian High School and middle school in Macon and elementary school in Blue Mound. Older local histories record a first schoolhouse in 1858, churches arriving in the 1860s, and a town built around the depot. Macon is a small Illinois city where the Illinois Central plat, prairie grain, a shared school district, and nearby Decatur all fit together.